A recent announcement from UN/CEFACT and OASIS reports that "all ebXML specifications have been submitted to the ebXML initiative's quality review process. These specifications are the result of more than a year's work by organizations and standards bodies around the world, which have come together to advance a common framework for global electronic business. The complete body of ebXML specifications defining business process methodology, core components, messaging, registry/repository, security, technical architecture and trading partner agreements are expected to be ratified in plenary May 2001. The ebXML Messaging Services Specification integrating SOAP is among the new specifications submitted to the ebXML review process. The effort to integrate SOAP into ebXML was started just five weeks ago. The ebXML announcement followed a proof-of-concept ebXML demonstration provided by vendors at the XML One Conference in London last week. Twenty-some companies collaborated to simulate a global, electronic business trading network using publicly available ebXML specifications. Many of these companies also issued public statements regarding their intentions to implement ebXML-compliant products in the near future." Specifications recently posted for QR include: (1) ebXML Registry Information Model Version 0.60, (2) ebXML Registry Services Specification Version 0.88, (3) ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement Specification Version 0.93, and (4) ebXML Message Service Specification: Transport, Routing & Packaging Version 0.98b.

ebXML specifications documents submitted for QR:

(1) ebXML Registry Information Model Version 0.60. Working Draft 3/19/2001. 43 pages. "The Registry Information Model provides a blueprint or high-level schema for the ebXML Registry. Its primary value is for implementers of ebXML Registries. It provides these implementers with information on the type of metadata that is stored in the Registry as well as the relationships among metadata classes. The Registry information model: (a) Defines what types of objects are stored in the Registry; (b) Defines how stored objects are organized in the Registry; (c) Is based on ebXML metamodels from various working groups..."

(2) ebXML Registry Services Specification Version 0.88. Working Draft 3/19/2001. 111 pages. "This document defines the interface to the ebXML Registry Services as well as interaction protocols, message definitions and XML schema... The Registry Services may be implemented in several ways including, as a public web site, as a private web site, hosted by an ASP or hosted by a VPN provider... The ebXML Registry provides a set of services that enable sharing of information between interested parties for the purpose of enabling business process integration between such parties based on the ebXML specifications. The shared information is maintained as objects in a repository and managed by the ebXML Registry Services defined in this document..."

(3) ebXML Collaboration Protocol Profile and Agreement Specification Version 0.93. Draft 03/19/01. 82 pages. "As defined in the ebXML Business-Process Specification Schema specification, a Business Partner is an entity that engages in Business Transactions with another Business Partner(s). Each Partner's capabilities (both commercial/business and technical) to engage in electronic Message exchanges with other Partners may be described by a document called a Trading-Partner Profile (TPP). The agreed interactions between two Partners may be documented in a document called a Trading-Partner Agreement (TPA). A TPA may be created by computing the intersection of the two Partners' TPPs. The Message-exchange capabilities of a Party may be described by a Collaboration-Protocol Profile (CPP) within the TPP. The Message-exchange agreement between two Parties may be described by a Collaboration-Protocol Agreement (CPA) within the TPA. Included in the CPP and CPA are details of transport, messaging, security constraints, and bindings to a Process-Specification document that contains the definition of the interactions between the two Parties while engaging in a specified electronic Business Process. This specification is a draft standard for trial implementation. This specification contains the detailed definitions of the Collaboration-Protocol Profile (CPP) and the Collaboration-Protocol Agreement (CPA)..."

(4) ebXML Message Service Specification: Transport, Routing & Packaging. Version 0.98b. Draft 13 March 2001. "This specification defines the ebXML Message Service protocol that enables the secure and reliable exchange of messages between two parties. It includes descriptions of: a) the ebXML Message structure used to package payload data for transport between parties; b) the behavior of the Message Service Handler that sends and receives those messages over a data communication protocol. This specification is independent of both the payload and the communication protocol used, although Appendices to this specification describe how to use this specification with HTTP and SMTP. This specification is organized around the following topics: (1) Packaging Specification: A description of how to package an ebXML Message and its associated parts into a form that can sent using a communications protocol such as HTTP or SMTP; (2) ebXML SOAP Extensions: A specification of the structure and composition of the information necessary for an ebXML Message Service to successfully generate or process an ebXML Message; (3) Message Service Handler Services: A description of two services that enable one service to discover the status of another Message Service Handler (MSH) or an individual message; (4) Reliable Messaging: The Reliable Messaging function defines an interoperable protocol such that any two Message Service implementations can 'reliably' exchange messages that are sent using 'reliable messaging' once-and-only-once delivery ' semantics; (5) Error Handling: This section describes how one ebXML Message Service reports errors it detects to another ebXML Message Service Handler; (6) Security: This provides a specification of the security semantics for ebXML Messages."